The OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS) is an activity database aimed at providing a set of readily available basic data to enable analysis on where aid goes, what purposes it serves and what policies it aims to implement. Data are collected on individual projects and programmes. The focus is on financial data but some descriptive information is also made available.
Data are made publicly available at: http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/52.
The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) policy markers are a qualitative statistical tool that enable the examination of development finance and the identification of a specific policy objective as either:
a principal policy objective (dedicated funding, “score 2”)
a significant objective (funding that integrates/mainstreams the policy objective, “score 1”)
not an objective (“score 0”).
Several DAC markers exist: gender equality; aid to environment; democratic and inclusive governance (DIG); reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH); nutrition; disaster risk reduction (DRR); and inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities (OECD, 2023[1]).
The gender equality policy marker with the 0-1-2 scoring system has existed since 1997. Reporting on the gender equality policy marker is mandatory for DAC members as they report their official development assistance (ODA) to the OECD.
Currently almost all bilateral allocable ODA is “screened” against the gender equality policy marker, meaning that its gender equality focus is established and a marker score is allocated and reported to the OECD accordingly. Analyses in this report use the total screened bilateral allocable ODA as the denominator. It cannot be assumed that aid that has not been screened does or does not include gender equality objectives.
The coverage of other official flows (OOFs) and finance provided by actors other than DAC members screened against the gender equality policy marker is smaller, so shares may be calculated based on total finance, in which case this is indicated in the relevant chart or text.
In general, the OECD uses and analyses the financial data in detail only once the development provider has screened at least half of its flows.
ODA is government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries. ODA has been the main source of financing for development aid since it was adopted by the OECD DAC as the “gold standard” of foreign aid in 1969 (OECD, 2024[2]). Starting with 2018 data, the new grant-equivalent measure of ODA became the standard for reporting, with the headline ODA figures published on that basis (OECD, 2024[3]). The ODA grant equivalent is a measure of donor effort. Grants, loans and other flows entering the calculation of the ODA grant equivalent measure are referred to as ODA flows. The OECD is the only official source of reliable, comparable and complete statistics on ODA.
OOF are official sector transactions that do not meet ODA criteria. OOF include grants to developing countries for representational or essentially commercial purposes; official bilateral transactions intended to promote development but which have a grant element of less than 25%; and official bilateral transactions, whatever their grant element, that are primarily export-facilitating in purpose. This category includes, by definition: export credits extended directly to an aid recipient by an official agency or institution (official direct export credits); the net acquisition by governments and central monetary institutions of securities issued by multilateral development banks at market terms; subsidies (grants) to the private sector to soften its credits to developing countries; and funds in support of private investment.
Analyses in this report refer to allocable finance, based on OECD data up to 2022, in 2022 constant prices, using the DAC Creditor Reporting System’s gender equality policy marker (OECD, 2024[4]).
Finance is considered “allocable” when the development provider defines the policy objective. It includes, for example, aid to and through civil society and aid to specific funds or programmes managed by multilateral organisations. Allocable ODA covers types A02 (sector budget support), B01 (core support to non‑governmental organisations), B03 (specific funds managed by international organisations), B04 (pooled funding), C01 (projects), D01 (donor country personnel), D02 (other technical assistance) and E01 (scholarships).
The list of “specific funds managed by international organisations” (B03) includes, for example, the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and the Rural Women Economic Empowerment Multi-Partner Trust Fund (OECD, 2023[5]). Contributions by DAC members to one of these funds is reported to and count in the OECD system as bilateral aid using a multilateral channel (“multi-bi” aid). DAC members make the contribution to one of these funds with a clear policy objective in mind, and the gender equality policy marker is applied. This means that all contributions by DAC members to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and other funds on this list score either 0, 1 or 2 against the gender equality policy marker and are included in the OECD’s data and analyses on “bilateral aid for gender equality”.
Allocable finance does not include core funding to multilateral organisations or general budget support to governments, given that the DAC member does not decide the policy focus of such aid. If a DAC member makes a core contribution to a multilateral organisation/agency – for example the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme or UN Women – then that counts as “core funding” to a multilateral organisation. It is not “bilateral allocable” aid because the DAC member does not decide the policy objective – the multilateral organisation/agency does – and the gender equality policy marker cannot be applied by the DAC member. These contributions are not included in the OECD’s data and analyses on “bilateral aid for gender equality”.
Instead, multilateral organisations and banks that receive core funding can themselves report their outflows to the OECD, including the gender equality of these outflows. This means there is no double-counting of development finance for gender equality.
Analyses use commitments, rather than disbursements, to capture intentions for the activity at the design stage and the political vision for the finance provided. Two-year averages are used to reduce volatility since commitments are recorded in full in the year they are made, even if they are multi-year, and irrespective of when they are disbursed. For some analyses, a specific year may need to be used, in which case this is specified in the text.
The percentage to show the share of ODA with a gender equality objective is usually calculated based on a denominator of ODA with gender equality policy marker scores 0, 1 and 2, and excludes ODA that was not screened/examined against the marker. This is done because most of DAC members’ ODA is screened against the marker. However, for OOFs and finance beyond DAC members, since there is less use of the gender equality policy marker, the denominator used for shares may be the sum of 0, 1, 2 and not screened, but this is then clearly indicated in the chart or text.
Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) is an international standard for measuring the full array of resources to promote the sustainable development of developing countries. It is designed to monitor all official resources flowing into developing countries for their sustainable development, but also private resources mobilised through official means. It also measures contributions to international public goods. The Secretariat is hosted by the OECD.
This report uses the data provided to TOSSD by South-South co-operation providers on their cross-border flows focused or not on Sustainable Development Goal 5. See also: https://www.tossd.org.
[4] OECD (2024), OECD Data Explorer, Creditor Reporting System (Database), http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/a9 (accessed on 18 August 2024).
[3] OECD (2024), Official development assistance – Definition and coverage, web page, https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/oda-eligibility-and-conditions/official-development-assistance--definition-and-coverage.html (accessed on 4 October 2024).
[2] OECD (2024), Official development assistance (ODA), web page, https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/policy-issues/official-development-assistance-oda.html (accessed on 7 October 2024).
[1] OECD (2023), Converged Statistical Reporting Directives for the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) and the Annual DAC Questionnaire, ONE Members and Partners, https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/STAT(2023)9/FINAL/en/pdf.
[5] OECD (2023), Reporting Contributions to Trust Funds Managed by Multilateral Institutions: Guidance Document, ONE Members and Partners, https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/STAT(2021)23/REV3/en/pdf.